PuzzleMaster in Canada are now selling my Digigrams puzzle, still the design of which I am most proud, under the name ‘Count Me In’, made by Dave Janelle at Creative Crafthouse. 

Take the nine digits and zero, as seen on a digital clock, calculator or microwave oven. Assemble them into a 4x5 grid of squares as partly shown below. Flipping and rotating is allowed. Note that there is a small notch cut out of the side of the zero. Its purpose should be obvious.

Dave tells me he thinks that Count Me In is a better name than Digigrams.  I disagree - what do you say? Contact me.  It was an exchange puzzle at the 2000 International Puzzle Party In Tokyo, by the way. Fit the digits into the tray to form a lattice pattern. 

Avoid sub-standard copies produced without my permission.

They fall apart and have sharp bits on them!

I designed this puzzle, Digigrams, several years ago, one sleepless night looking at the digital alarm clock every few minutes for what seemed like forever. I started trying to put myself to sleep by counting the segments of each number. I eventually counted 49 segments but at this point I was still awake! I then started thinking about how to arrange those segments, and eventually in my half-awake state I realised that there were enough to form a 4x5 grid of squares.  Then I started wondering if they would fit! By now I was fully awake, and, in the middle of the night I got up and started making the first prototype, from matchsticks.

I strongly recommend this to you as it is such a delightfully simple idea, but very frustrating as you will soon discover.  By-standers and non-puzzlers love it too, as it seems so easy...

Simply (!) arrange the digits 1-9 & 0 in the tray as shown.

I would welcome additional puzzles using these pieces, which I may add here. This was an exchange puzzle in 2001, presented by Patrick Major, at the International Puzzle Party in Tokyo.

I have removed the picture of the original version as used in Tokyo, as it is a bit of clue to solving.  The original version was made in three woods, forcing a single solution if adjacent colours must be different.

(Copyright Martin H. Watson, 2000-2022, for a 2-dimensional packing puzzle, fitting the digits 1 to 9 plus zero into a 4x5 grid. Production of this design is only permitted on a single basis for personal use only. Contact me for details.)

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